When I taught literature, I had to frequently remind my students not to skip the “boring parts” of the books—things like long paragraphs describing scenery in Dickens’ Oliver Twist or the long list of ships that appears near the beginning of The Iliad. I understand the temptation. When I was their age, I frequently skimmed
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Julius Franklin Howell joined the Confederate Army when he was 16. After surviving a few battles, Howell eventually found himself in a Union prison camp at Point Lookout, Maryland. In 1947, at the age of 101, Howell made a rare recording at the Library of Congress, in which he described his enlistment, sudden capture, and
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Words can harm. The childhood saying “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” is obviously untrue. Words bring ruin and despair, drive people to suicide, and foment massacres and war. They are used to justify the enslavement of nations, and the genocide of entire ethnic groups. This is exactly
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In the face of certain death, does being civilized matter? All the narrators of Beryl Bainbridge’s 1991 historical novel The Birthday Boys die. And still, knowing their deaths loom, they carry on with birthdays, religious practices, and virtues like loyalty and courage. Heavily based on real life diaries and letters, this novel is a hybrid
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In 1962, 93 percent of all murders in America were solved. In 2020, more than 50 percent of murders went unsolved. What happened? Why is it so easy to get away with murder in the United States? As with many terrible trends, the “Great Decline” in the murder clearance rate started in the mid-1960s. By
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In sorrow, we must go, but not in despair. Behold! We are not bound for ever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory. Near the close of The Return of the King, Aragorn proclaims these words of farewell, seeking to comfort his friends as they depart to their homes
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